Georgia and Russia: we should remember common victories! A presentation of the film “Champions” was held at the Russian-Georgian Center in Tbilisi

24 June 2016

Georgia and Russia have to remember their common history and victories, and bilateral relations should not be just friendly and warm, but they should be family relations. Such opinion was expressed by athletes of a global level, Olympic champions Alexander Karelin, Svetlana Khorkina and Alexander Popov, who gave an exclusive interview to Sputnik Georgia.

Wrestler Alexander Karelin, gymnast Svetlana Khorkina and swimmer Alexander Popov came to Tbilisi for a presentation of the film “Champions: Faster. Higher. Stronger”. The film tells about real events in the life of outstanding athletes.

As it was reported earlier, the presentation of the film was arranged by the Primakov Georgian-Russian Public Center with support of the Alexander Gorchakov Public Diplomacy Fund.

“Relations between Georgia and Russia should not be just friendly, just warm. They should be family relations”, four-time Olympic champion and six-time World champion in swimming Alexander Popov told a correspondent of Sputnik.

He mentioned that despite political disagreements, sports relations between the countries have never stopped.

“Perhaps, there were some disagreements, misunderstanding during a certain period of time on a political level, but the sports constituent has remained concrete and a foundation of everything as before”, Alexander Popov believes.

When answering the question about what role sport could play in the process of building Georgian-Russian relations, nine-time World champion Svetlana Khorkina said: “It is better not to destroy them initially”. “Faster. Higher. Stronger - these are relations we should have”, noted the well-known athlete. Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and member of the party United Russia Alexander Karelin, a former successful wrestler, stated a need to establish neighboring relations between the countries.

“We should always stay friends, we should always remember our common history before allowing ourselves certain judgements, much less decisions. We should remember that we have a remarkable power of the Russian language, which allows all of us understating each other”, Alexander Karelin said.

Source – Sputnik Georgia.

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